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Do You Know Your Baseball Mustaches?

I’m still constantly amazed at how much attention Carl Pavano’s mustache gets. I mean, the guy is tied for the lead in wins in the American League after notching his 15th on Friday night but if you ask 10 people what they know about him, 9 will mention the mustache before anything else. (OK, if any of the 10 people you ask are Yankee fans, they might not mention the mustache first… but I’d be too busy snickering at their answer to care).

You think I’m wrong? Then let me ask you this: We started posting on this blog in March. Which post do you suppose has been the most-read? Was it one of our early pictorial posts from our first visits to Target Field? No. Was it the rant about Why the Yankees $uck? No. (But that was quite popular.. I wonder why.) It was the post where we sought to assign “blame” for Pavano’s mustache. And it’s not even close. That post was published weeks ago and it still gets a number of new hits every week.

So just to make the point that it’s not completely unheard of for a Major League ballplayer to have some hair above his lip, we’ve come up with the following “mustache quiz”.

Below are pictures of 12 Major League ballplayers, all of whom anyone claiming to be a serious baseball fan should have at least some casual knowledge of. Some of these are tougher to identify than others but there are no obscure one-year wonders here. They all had more than just 15 minutes of fame. In fact, among the choices, there are Hall of Famers and some guys who either arguably should be Hall of Famers or likely will be some day. We’re also showing you more than just the mustache… in fact you’ve pretty much got the lower half of each player’s face to go on. Let’s see how many you can name.

(The answers will be posted in the Comments section, but no peeking until you’re finished with the quiz!)

1

2

3

4

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5

6

7

8

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9

10

11

12

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How well do you know your mustaches?

0-1 players identified = Just what part of the players’ bodies are you focused on all game anyway?

I’m sure you aren’t alone, not recognizing Hrabosky, James. He was one of the pioneers of the “intimidating closer” breed in the mid 1970s. This from the “official” Al Hrbosky web site:

“A blazing fastball, used 90 percent of the time, made Hrabosky one of the most effective relievers of the 1970’s. The southpaw’s nickname, The Mad Hungarian, came from his nationality, Fu Manchu mustache and long hair, and angry stomping to the back of the mound to psych himself up. He was “The Sporting News” NL Fireman of the Year in 1975 with St. Louis (13-3, 1.67 era, 22 saves). When he wasn’t selected to the All-Star team in 1974, St. Louis fans rallied behind him, honoring him with a “We Hlove Hrabosky Hbanner Hday.” Traded in December 1977 to the Royals for reliever Mark Littel, in 1979 he signed a multi-million-dollar contract with the Braves via free agency, but recorded only 7 of his lifetime 97 saves with Atlanta. He is currently a Cardinals broadcaster.”